ProFantasy's Map-Making Archive

If you have ever tried searching for maps in the Community Atlas, you might have noticed that there is an option for searching for text in the map. This option searches for text in the visible labels on the map itself, but also for text in the attached map notes. Since map notes are included in the search, it means that you can search for something like “Symbol Set 6” and get a list of all maps in the atlas that uses resources from SS6 (If you have looked at atlas maps, you may have noticed they all have a map note listing which products are required, which is why you can then search for this).

So, the interesting question here is how is this possible in the first place? FCW files are binary files after all, and not easily parsed by web server software, and the search would also be slow if it had to look through 1300+ files every time someone tried to search.

The solution here lies in a feature in CC3+ that can create a search index for a whole folder of maps. This feature was originally intended to use with the built in search feature in Campaign Cartographer, but as I’ve already reveled here, it can also be utilized by other tools, in this case my web server software to allow map searches despite the fact that the maps on the web server are just plain non-searchable images.

Continue reading »

Sometimes when you draw a box, you may wish to pretty up the corners a bit, for example by making them rounded or just cutting them off. This might be for many reasons, perhaps you are making a box to be a nice frame around your map legend, or you are making some kind of map marker. And of course, this technique doesn’t just work with boxes, but with every case where you have two lines joining in some kind of corner.

If you have been seeing some of the recent live mapping videos, you may have noticed Ralf using this command to produce simple village symbols.

We have two sets of commands that are very helpful here, the Chamfer and Fillet commands. If you right click the Trim button you’ll find two versions of each of these commands. The Fillet command is for making a rounded corner, while the Chamber command makes an angled corner. The difference between the regular and Trim version of the commands is that the regular version will add the line/curve but will not trim away the extra part of the line, while the Trim version also trims the lines to the new corner shape. You normally want to use the Trim versions of these commands, but feel free to experiment.

Continue reading »

There is no getting around the fact that CC3+ contains a huge number of symbols, especially if you own all the add-ons, symbol sets and annuals, and even more if you have installed some of the available free community made sets, or maybe even imported images you have found yourself as symbols.

We have different ways in how we like to go looking for symbols, but one way some people like is having a kind of symbol book they can flip through. I still have memories of software in the last millennium that often came with such printed books in their box, for example a clipart book showing all the clipart available in the software. These days, such books are not quite as useful, because as computers evolved and became more powerful, they started offering on-screen preview and search features. Still, sometimes flipping through a book, either in physical form, or a pdf on your screen can be nice. If you have a multi-screen setup, you can even keep that book on one screen and work with CC3+ on another.

Now, CC3+ doesn’t come with any such books, neither printed nor digital, but it contains the tools that allow you to make one for yourself.

Continue reading »

There is no denying that there is a lot of symbols available in CC3+, especially if you have several of the various add-ons and annuals. And at times, it can be hard to find what you want.

In CC3+, all symbols are arranged in symbol catalogs, and symbol catalogs are all associated with a map style. For example, the Mike Schley overland style have it’s own set of symbol catalogs, while the CC3 Standard overland style have a different set of symbol catalogs. CC3+ is set up this way to make it easy to find and use the symbols that belong to the current style, you should be able to access them simply by hitting the various symbol catalog buttons immediately above the mapping window. Symbols are deliberately divided into different styles because these symbols are drawn by multiple artists using multiple drawing styles, and very often don’t look all that good if you try to mix them on the same map. Just look at the mountains above. They all look good when used in the map style they belong to, but mixing them makes little sense. This is why when you click the mountains catalog button in CC3+ you will be presented with a symbol catalog containing symbols that fit your current map style instead of just the same set of mountains always.

Sometimes however, you do want to use symbols not part of your current style. Some styles are more compatible with each other than others, so there are certainly cases where a symbol from another style may look good. Generally in CC3+, you can always browse for any symbol catalog you want by hitting the Open Symbol Catalog button right above the symbol catalog and look for the right symbol catalog (They’re all found in subfolders under the Symbols folder in the CC3+ data directory). If you want to use many symbols from other styles however, this can lead to a lot of clicking and browsing, making creating your own symbol catalog a good idea. A custom symbol catalog gives you easy access to the symbols you have included in it, without impacting the official catalogs.

Continue reading »

A couple of months ago, I wrote an article about using the random dungeon feature for a map depicting the innards of a magical artifact.

I decided that just randomly exploring it could end up being a bit boring, so I decided to give the players a bit of guidance, to give them targets to search for without giving them too much information about the dungeon. And what better medium for this than a player handout that is a hastily drawn partial map of the dungeon found on the corpse of some poor adventurer who never made it?

So, I dug into the list of styles available to see what could be useful for something like this. I was looking for something that looked hand-drawn, but also something that looked like it was done somewhat quickly, maybe with a bit of care, but not some map drawn by a cartographer sitting at his desk for hours. In the end, I decided on the Sticky Note Dungeons from the 2024 annual. It might sound like a weird choice initially as sticky notes don’t really scream medieval dungeon, especially since this was an in-game map supposedly drawn by an NPC. But that makes this style really work for this purpose is the fact that it has drawing tools and effects that allow you to draw lines that look hand-drawn, and the included symbols also looks like something someone could draw quickly. So I decided to used that as a base and customize it for my needs to get what I needed.

Continue reading »

The cold season is here again, at least in the northern hemisphere, and white stuff is falling down outside my window.

There are a couple of nice styles for making winter maps, such as Winter Trail and Winter Village, but what if you just want to make your overland map look a bit more seasonal?

One of my favorite effects is the RGB Matrix Process. This effects may look a bit complicated if you just look at the dialog, but this is just all about simple mathematical manipulation of the color values. Using this dialog you can strengthen or weaken an individual color component, such as adding more red or less green. You can even completely swap color components around, for example swapping the red and blue components. CC3+ has other ways of manipulating colors too, but none of the other effects can accomplish the same as the RGB Matrix process can.

I’ve already explained the effect in another article a few years back, The RGB Matrix Process Effect, so today I’ll just use it to show you how to give a quick makeover to an existing map, you can read more about the calculations in the linked article.

Continue reading »

Last month, I wrote an article about Mapping as You Go showing off one technique I use for maps in my game.

This time, I’ll present another map I made last week for their next adventure. I had a situation where the characters encountered a misbehaving magical artifact. It was a small cube that could be used to summon a wizard’s laboratory that one could enter. Unfortunately, the thing started spawning random monsters instead, and now the characters have to enter it to shut it down.

To me, that meant that the Random Dungeon generator was a perfect fit. It gives a perfect starting point for a dungeon inside a magical artifact. I could focus more on the content of the dungeon, and not spending too much time deliberating the layout.

Continue reading »

I recently started a new role-playing campaign with my group. It is set in my existing campaign world of Virana, so I already have some higher overview maps and maps of various locations, but as often is the case with new campaigns, they take place in a small local area somewhere.

So, instead of making the map up front, I decided to go for a slightly different approach this time, starting with a blank map and adding stuff to it as players explore. This gives me a lot more freedom to accommodate the various whims of players, and it gives them a greater sense of being explorers as they simply don’t have a complete map of the area.

I thought I should share some of my thoughts and experiences around this with you, maybe you can use this idea in your own campaigns?

Continue reading »

In Informative Maps 01 – City Demographics I tackled how you can use demographics coloring to visually show the demographics of your city. Another very useful way to add information to city maps is the use of a map index. While an index can technically benefit any map type, it is especially useful in city maps because the density of information typically found in city maps, such as street and location names.

CC3+ has the ability to automatically generate such indexes from your map files, and show with a grid reference to make it easy to find the feature in the map itself. The command itself is extremely easy to use, but we can also improve things by being smart about our layers.

Continue reading »

There are lots of things you can do in CC3+, and often lots of ways you can do every thing. Today I am going to take a look at 10 quick things that are helpful to know for any mapper.

Note that the list is not presented in any particular order.

Continue reading »